The FinCommunications Story: What's Yours?

A few months ago we published a blog on Mastering the Art of Financial Storytelling. Now we’re going to put our money where our mouths are and tell the Fincommunications story. Here goes…I graduated with a Business Science Degree from UCT and embarked on a career in Corporate Marketing in both South Africa and Australia. After ten years of developing strategies, running campaigns and managing marketing portfolios for leading brands, I decided to reinvent myself as a financial planner. I went back to university and requalified. You’re never too old to be a student!

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

I loved the process of helping clients make the savvy financial decisions that would ultimately afford them financial freedom and more meaningful lives. However, I also missed the creativity of the marketing world and saw an opportunity to combine my previous life with my current one. And so, Fincommunications was born in November 2016. Experience has taught me to always hire an expert, so I immediately began building relationships with the best copywriters, designers, digital marketersand web developers in South Africa.To my surprise, we started 2017 off with a bang, by landing writing jobs for Prudential, Personal Finance Magazine, and Mark MacSymon, Financial Planner of the Year, 2017. We pioneered a new fresh style of financial writing that’s both conversational (sometimes even entertaining!) and factually correct. We kept those clients happy and soon found some new ones. We landed other great brands including FNB Stockbroking and Portfolio Management and The Milpark Business School…Not to mention Kanan Wealth, a boutique and very progressive financial planningfirm. We’ve also recently started to work with Janet Hugo, Director of Sterling Wealth and Financial Planner of the Year 2018.However, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Our cash flow has been inconsistent and, although this is usual for a small startup business, it’s been worrying at times. In the process of developing an expert team we’ve had to reject work but still pay for it – which has put further pressure on cash flows. And, we haven’t won all our pitches for work which has instilled periods of doubt.Related: FinServ: To Chat in a Box or Not?

OPEN TO NEW CHALLENGES

In the beginning, we focused mainly on blogs, press releases and website content but it soon became apparent that our skills were needed in other spheres too. We broadened our horizons to include social media management and then – in conjunction with ENS – hosted a series of highly successful seminars on social mediaand the law. (We’d love to rerun these for you if you missed them the first time around).We’re in the process of setting up a PBO that’s going to add huge value to the Fiduciary Industry. Again, we know our limitations and are partnering with true industry leaders to ensure success. We’ve also started a new business, FinSubscriptions, which will provide pre-written, gutsy articles for sale at a very affordable price.

A MARKETING AGENCY WHO UNDERSTANDS

Our clients love dealing with Fincommunications because we understand the industry intimately. We know what can and can’t be said regarding compliance regulations and we have deep technical knowledge of the world of finance. Gone are the days of having to teach your ad agency about diversification and Regulation 28!Two years into our journey, we’ve learnt a few valuable lessons. We’ve benefitted from being flexible and embracing opportunities as they arise, instead of focusing on a very narrow range of services.